The tidelands surrounding the Swinomish Reservation are an important cultural, environmental, and subsistence resource for the Tribe.
As part of the Water Resources Program committment to water quality monitoring, comprehensive tideland resource monitoring is conducted including: testing shellfish (clams) for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP); surveying reservation beaches for clam population health and distribution; testing shellfish for bioaccumulate toxics; monitoring the nearshore environment for fish habitat and environmental health; monitoring the effectiveness of Spartina sp. eradication techniques on reservation.
Nearshore Surveys
Shoreline Assessments or Nearshore Surveys involve the monitoring of the nearshore environment for long term trends or changes in vegetation and sediment regimes on the beach. The Nearshore Survey is made up of three parts: beach profiles; vegetation monitoring; and sediment monitoring on four Reservation beaches.
Vegetation and sediment monitoring are conducted along transects
at regular intervals. Quarter Square meter grids are used for
percent coverage of vegetation as well as plots for the visual
sediment characterization.
Beach Profiles are conducted along the same transect as the veg
& sed grids.
A standard transit and rod technique is used. Creative use of flashlights is need for the winter time surveys when the low tides occur at night. As part of the beach profile project, five new tidal benchmarks were installed near the beach transects.
Tidal Benchmarks - GIS/Mapping Projects
As part of the Nearshore Survey project, five new tidal benchmarks were installed near the beach transects. Each benchmark was first installed then a level survey was conducted. The level survey established the local tidal elevation of the new benchmarks. The elevation was surveyed in from previously established benchmarks.
The Swinomish Geographic Information Services (GIS) provides
support to the Water Resources Program by: global positioning
system (GPS) locating and mapping environmentally significant
features in the field; producing hard copy maps for planning
purposes.
The GIS employs a Trimble GPS unit and ArcView computer mapping
software.